From Spirituals to Swing

From Spirituals to Swing was the title of two influential concerts presented by John Hammond in Carnegie Hall on 23 December 1938 and 24 December 1939. The concerts included performances by Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson, Helen Humes, Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons, Mitchell's Christian Singers, the Golden Gate Quartet, James P. Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry, and many others.

The idea was a history, starting with spirituals and leading up to big swing bands.

Most of these artists were little known at the time, and gospel, jazz, and blues had rarely been presented in a respectful, concert format. Both Basie and Goodman, for instance, appeared not only with their bands, but with smaller combos. The concerts also featured unusual collaborators, such as Broonzy and James P. Johnson. Broonzy had been recruited as a replacement for Robert Johnson, who had died earlier in 1938.

The boogie woogie craze of the late 1930s and early '40s dates from these concerts. Johnson and Turner, along with Lewis and Ammons, basically continued as an act after the concerts with their appearances at the Cafe Society night club, as did many of the other performers. The stage moves and musical ecstasy of the gospel performers were new to the white audience, and presaged much that appeared later in rhythm and blues and rock and roll.

The recordings of the concerts commissioned by Hammond were acetate sound checks, and only transferred to tape in 1953 and released in 1959, with faked announcements recorded by Hammond the previous year. The album, reissued as a 3-CD set in 1999, is now considered a classic.